STEPANAKERT – “The biggest loss of the last war was our people, our boys who died defending the motherland,” said Davit Babayan, the former press secretary of the president of Artsakh and the chairman of the Conservative Party of Artsakh.
Babayan continues to live in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. He mourns the loss of its Christian Armenian heritage: Shushi’s cathedral, Dadivank and Gtich Vank, which for Babayan resonates with the fall of Ani and its famous main cathedral centuries ago.
“The cultural heritage is crucial for our past, for our current identity, and for our future,” Davit said, speaking over the phone.
He noted that the Azerbaijanis have already started the destruction and desecration of Armenian monuments and gravestones.
Amaras in the Martuni region eventually ended up on the Armenian side, but very near the new line of contact, Babayan followed up, referring to the fifth-century cathedral where Gregory the Illuminator’s grandson St. Grigoris is buried and where Mesrop Mashtots founded a school.
“The Dadivank Monastery is different; it’s under the Russian peacekeepers’ protection now. It is unclear whether Christian liturgies would be possible there in the future,” Babayan stated.
